PS
- many Avaaz campaigns are started by members of our community! Start
yours now and win on any issue - local, national or global: www.avaaz.org/en/petition/start
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Dear Avaazers,

It’s
unbelievable, but Monsanto and Co. are at it again. These profit-hungry
biotech companies have found a way to exclusively ‘own’ something that
freely belongs to us all -- our food! They’re trying to patent away our
everyday vegetables and fruits like cucumber, broccoli and melons,
forcing
growers to pay them and risk being sued if they don’t.

But we
can stop them from buying up Mother Earth. Companies like Monsanto have
found loopholes in European law to get away with this, so we just need
to close them shut before they set a dangerous global precedent. And to
do that, we need key countries like Germany, France and the Netherlands
-- where opposition is already growing -- to call for a vote to stop
Monsanto’s plans. The Avaaz community has shifted governments before,
and we can do it again.

Many farmers and politicians are already
against this -- we just need to bring in people power to pressure these
countries to keep Monsanto’s hands off our food. Sign now and share with
everyone to help build the biggest food defense call ever:

Once
a
patent exists in one country, trade agreements and negotiations often
push other countries to honour it as well. That's why these food patents
change everything about how our food chain works: for thousands of
years, farmers could choose which seeds they’d use without worrying
about getting sued for violating intellectual property rights. But now,
companies launch expensive legal campaigns to buy patents on
conventional plants and force farmers to pay exorbitant royalty fees.
Monsanto and Co. claim that patents drive innovation -- but in fact they
create a corporate monopoly of our food.

But luckily, the
European Patent Office is controlled by 38 member states who, with one
vote, can end dangerous patents on food that is bred using conventional
methods. Even the European Parliament has issued a statement objecting
to these kinds of destructive patents. Now, a massive wave of public
outcry could push them to ban the patenting of our everyday
food for good.

The situation is dire already -- Monsanto alone
owns 36% of all tomato, 32% of sweet pepper and 49% of cauliflower
varieties registered in the EU. With a simple regulatory change, we
could protect our food, our farmers and our planet from corporate
control -- and it's up to us to make it happen:

The
Avaaz community has never been afraid to stand up to corporate capture
of our institutions, from pushing back the Rupert Murdoch mafia, to
helping ensure that telecoms keep their hands off our Internet. Now it’s
time to defend our food supply from this corporate takeover.

Avaaz.org is a 20-million-person global campaign network
that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people
shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many
languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is
spread across 18 countries on 6 continents and operates in 17
languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.You are getting this message because you signed "Monsanto vs. Mother Earth" on 2013-04-09 23:15:21 using the email address cos_dem@yahoo.gr.